Parity Proposes Hard Fork to Reclaim Frozen $160 Million

Parity Technologies has just released a proposal for reclaiming its lost funds.

In a blog post published soon before press time, the ethereum software company confirmed that a hard fork will be necessary in order to reactivate the $160 million-worth of ether (ETH) that was frozen last month due to a fault in the code.

The company wrote:

“No one should be under any illusion that unlocking these stuck funds would be anything other than a rescue operation – and would only be possible with a hard fork.”

Parity revealed that its preferred fix would be made via protocol changes to the ethereum virtual machine (EVM). According to the blog post, this would be as a “functional enhancement to the platform” that would both restore the lost funds and protect against similar cases in future.

According to the blog post, there are four such protocol changes currently under review.

As previously detailed by bit-cointalk, EVM protocol changes are a contentious solution. Speaking at the time, the idea was criticized by ethereum developer Nick Johnston, who said it would “change an important invariant” in the EVM, leading to “unexpected bugs, even in already-deployed contracts.”

The post documents two other potential fixes, including an amendment to the existing ethereum improvement protocol, EIP156, and an “address specific” Parity fund rescue.

In the time since the fund freeze, the Parity debate has triggered discussions reminiscent of the DAO hack of last year, in which hard fork contention spawned a competing cryptocurrency named ethereum classic (now valued at $1.7 billion).

The Parity blog post concludes:

“It is our hope that the community would get behind a rescue of these funds to help all the users that we can.”

The leader in blockchain news, bit-cointalk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at news@bit-cointalk.com.